A ceremony Thursday evening celebrated 40 people who recently graduated from the Tuolumne County Day Reporting Center for adult probationers.
Roughly 100 people gathered in Black Oak Casino Hotel’s Four Winds Conference Room to recognize the reformed graduates for the steps they’ve taken to make a better future for themselves.
The keynote address was given by Crescencio Castaneda, district manager for BI Incorporated, a private company that works in partnership with the Tuolumne County Probation Department to run the day reporting center and its rehabilitative programs for former prisoners.
“Don’t settle for being average,” he told the graduates. “Average will not get you to a higher quality of life or a better tomorrow. Tonight, you are surrounded by above-average people.”
The county’s day reporting center, at 1194 Highway 49 in Sonora, opened more than three years ago in response to California’s “public safety realignment” through Assembly Bill 109 — a state law passed in 2011 to cut the state’s prison population as ordered by the U.S. Supreme Court.
AB 109 reduced sentences for some previously prisonable offenses and shifted the responsibility of monitoring low-risk prison convicts from State Parole to county probation departments upon their release.
Former prisoners in the day reporting center program — which lasts six to eight months — must undergo intensive supervision, behavioral therapy and other training intended to reintegrate them into society.
Castaneda, who oversees a district that also includes Merced, Madera and Fresno counties, said that Tuolumne County’s program is among the best in terms of its success rate.
“(Tuolumne County) is averaging 85 to 90 percent attendance and check-ins are around 90 percent,” he said. “The outcomes have been tremendous.”
Among those who received a certificate Thursday for successfully completing the program was Matthew Burbey, 48, of Sonora.
Burbey entered the program last year after being released from prison on a 32-month sentence for drug possession.
After 7 months, Burbey completed the program in February and was officially let off probation for the first time in 30 years. He said he started doing drugs at 8 years old, which led to a life of crime.
”I’ve been doing time since I was 14,” he said. “I’d get out, stay out for a while and then fall back into drugs and running amok.”
Burbey said he was at first annoyed with being ordered go through the intensive program at the day reporting center.
However, Burbey now credits the program’s counselors and probation officers with changing his life.
“They genuinely cared and weren’t just trying to get you busted,” he said. “Parole used to be like they would give you rope and let you hang yourself.”
Those in the day reporting center program are offered help with employment referrals, housing subsidies and applying for financial aid to attend college.
Burbey said he’s been taking classes at Columbia College since January and has accumulated a 4.0 GPA. He’s looking into possible careers in forestry, firefighting or computer science.
“I’m an official college student at 48 years old,” he said. “I never really thought about what I want to be when I grow up.”
Burbey and five other graduates gave speeches about their experiences in the program, with many touching on the event’s theme of “stepping into a better tomorrow.”
Tuolumne County Chief Probation Officer Adele Arnold, who plans to retire in December, said the program has been a “shining star” since its inception shortly after AB 109 took effect.
“We knew we had to act quickly, because our jail was already overcrowded without realignment,” she said. “We’ve had career criminals who have gone through the program and remain in the community.”
However, Arnold said the realignment hasn’t been without its issues.
Proposition 47, passed by voters last November, reduced the punishment for some former felonies, diluting the consequences for repeat offenders who don’t want to change on their own.
Funding from the state for county probation departments to operate programs like the day reporting center has also been an issue, Arnold said.
The county had to take about $450,000 out of a reserve fund earmarked for AB 109 programs last year due to a lack of funding from the state. Arnold said the county will likely need to dip into the reserves once again this year to cover costs.
Nonetheless, Arnold is optimistic about the future.
“California has been behind for a long time, but we’re moving to more community-based policing and community-based rehabilitation,” she said. “I think the criminal justice system is moving in the right direction.”
